George Sutherland

“ The petitioner sued in the Court of Claims to recover $1,126.15, the amount by which his income tax for the year 1918 was increased by reason of the refusal of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to allow a deduction from petitioner's gross income of the sum of $10,000 claimed as a business expense for that year. ”

“ If the expense had been incurred in an action to recover a fee from a client who refused to pay it, the character of the expenditure as a business expense would not be doubted. In the application of the act we are unable to perceive any real distinction between an expenditure for attorney's fees made to secure payment of the earnings of the business and a like expenditure to retain such earnings after their receipt. One is as directly connected with the business as the other. ”

“ That in computing net income there shall be allowed as deductions:
' (1) All the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, * * *'
-and section 215 (a) which provides:
'Sec. 215. ”